


I Can Drive You Home

by clio_jlh



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Miscommunication, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 05:30:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9642683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clio_jlh/pseuds/clio_jlh
Summary: After getting her PhD and scoring a tenure-track position at Berkeley, Lydia’s moving back, closer to Beacon Hills than she’s been since college.  She and Erica both know their long-distance relationship has to change, but they're not quite in the same place about how that will happen.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Fun Was in the Capture](https://archiveofourown.org/works/702661) by [clio_jlh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clio_jlh/pseuds/clio_jlh). 



> Thanks as always to pinetreelady for giving this a once-over! These are the same ladies trying to figure out dating in the [dancing and hiking series](http://archiveofourown.org/series/38442), so read that if you want to see why they argue over when their anniversary actually is. Title from the Garbage song.

During Lydia's senior year at Stanford, MIT came calling, but the best chaos theory was coming out of Cal Tech so off to Pasadena she went. Cora had already been living in southern California for a while, so they found a three-bedroom bungalow, Scott made nice with the local pack, and that was that. The pack all helped with the moving, of course, doing as much of it at night as possible so no one would see them single-handedly hauling furniture up the stairs. 

Erica managed to visit once or twice a semester, whenever Lydia's teaching and class workload was relatively light. But she didn't kid herself; Lydia was bound for Greater Things than Beacon Hills could offer. Erica found herself content to stay in her hometown with pack and family, use her accounting degree to do people's taxes and help get Derek's business up and running. Not that Lydia had moved on from her, exactly, but she was also busy—maybe too busy to invest time and energy in a new romantic relationship with someone else. 

It was fine. It was enough.

Five years later and rising star Dr. Lydia Martin had her pick of tenure track jobs around the country. Erica was surprised when Lydia chose Berkeley, though Stiles didn't seem to be. Lydia put most of her belongings in storage and stayed with Erica while she looked for an apartment she could afford on an associate professor's salary, insisting that Erica come along with her. After all, Erica wasn't so busy in the summer that she couldn't take a day here or there to look at city real estate, especially since she wasn't taking her usual time off to travel with Lydia during her break. 

It was the living together that took, or actually _didn't_ take as much adjustment as Erica would have thought. She could get used to this, to having Lydia in her bed every night instead of twenty or so nights a year and video chat sex in between, to grocery shopping and sharing meals and doing chores and any one of a hundred other little domestic activities that had never been a part of their relationship before now. But surely when Lydia was living in the city, settled in her new job, she'd be able to make the personal side of her life match the professional side. 

In the meantime, looking at so many tiny apartments and having Lydia in hers made Erica reconsider something Derek had been hinting about for a while now. On one of their drives back to Beacon Hills, after a day of apartment hunting, Erica said, "I'm thinking about getting a bigger place. Maybe even a house."

Lydia nodded. "Oh I think we should. If I'm going to be in some minuscule studio during the week I'll need something even larger to escape to on the weekends."

_We?_ Erica thought. _The weekends?_ Aloud, she said, "Then you'll have to help me look, once we get you settled in your apartment. Unless you're sick of real estate."

"I certainly hope that I'd have some input!" Lydia said, sitting up straighter in the passenger seat.

"Of course," Erica said, nodding, because who in the pack made any major decisions without getting Lydia's opinion, wanted or unwanted? "I couldn't do it without you." She smiled, feeling Lydia's eyes on her, and glanced over to see her considering expression.

After a few moments, Lydia threw up her arms. "Damnit, Stiles, I hate it when you're right."

"About what?" Erica asked, wondering when Stiles had come into this.

"I thought we were on the same page, you and I," Lydia said, "but Stiles thought I needed to be more overt, and now here we are."

Erica's heart sank, despite her having tried this past month—these past years—not to get her hopes up. Lydia was going to break up with her, now, in this car, and what was important was not to freak out, even if they were only three days out from the full moon. She took a breath and exhaled, gathering courage, then asked, "Where do you think we are?"

"We've been together for nine years now, give or take."

"Give or take," Erica agreed, and couldn't help smiling, because—

"And we don't even agree on when our anniversary is."

"It's coming up next month," Erica said.

"It was three months ago, from when we first hooked up," Lydia replied, incorrectly.

Erica shook her head. "No, it's when you first called me your girlfriend, because you have to actually _say_ things like that."

"Fine, then I'm _saying_ , now, that we should officially move in together, since apparently what's happening right now is unofficial—"

"Yes, because you don't move in together because of real estate issues. You do it because you want to." 

"I want to. Do you want to?"

"Of course," Erica said, truly exhaling now. "I like this. I like having you with me."

"Good. So we'll have a pied-à-terre in the city and a house in Beacon Hills and I'll come home every weekend unless we want to do something in town."

Erica grinned. "That sounds perfect."

"And we should think about marriage," Lydia said. "I have a very good health care plan."

"You want to get married for insurance?" Erica asked.

"No," Lydia said, as though Erica was an idiot. "I want to get married because—"

"We are not having this conversation in the car," Erica said.

"What?"

"We are not talking about this while I have to drive. I am going to turn the music on and we will pick up dinner on our way home, and we'll fuck or whatever, and then in the morning we are going to get up and get dressed and go someplace—the Preserve, maybe—and we are going to sit and talk this all out, the entire thing, including _how we feel_. All right?"

"Can I say one thing now?" Lydia asked.

Erica shrugged. "Clearly I can't stop you."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

"So we agree on that." Lydia turned on the radio. 

They were silent for a few songs, then Erica asked, "Tacos for dinner?"

Lydia smiled. "I want nothing else."


End file.
